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Studies find global COVID-19 lockdowns have significantly reduced PM2.5 and NO2 pollution, but ozone up

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Levels of two major air pollutants have been reduced significantly since lockdowns began in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, but a secondary pollutant—ground-level ozone—has increased in China, according to new research. For comparison, columns over the same time periods are shown for 2019.

Ozone 291
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Study finds rapid health benefits following air pollution reduction

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Reductions in air pollution yielded fast and significant impacts on health-outcomes, as well as decreases in all-cause morbidity, according to new open-access research published in Annals of the American Thoracic Society. It’s critical that governments adopt and enforce WHO guidelines for air pollution immediately.

Pollution 186
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EPA proposes new rulemaking for sharp cuts in methane emissions from oil and gas industry

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The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is proposing comprehensive new regulations to reduce methane emissions from the oil and natural gas industry—including, for the first time, reductions from existing sources nationwide. Source: EPA.

EPA 243
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Study provides more insight into air pollution mechanisms that cause cardiovascular diseases

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Air pollution, and fine dust in particular, is calculated to contribute to more than four million deaths each year. While the mechanisms by which air pollutants cause cardiovascular events is undergoing continual refinement, the preponderant evidence support rapid effects of a diversity of pollutants including all particulate pollutants (e.g.

Pollution 220
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EEA says industrial air pollution cost Europe up to €169 billion in 2009; some 37% attributed to CO2

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Aggregated damage costs by pollutant. Air pollution from the 10,000 largest polluting facilities in Europe cost citizens between €102–169 billion (US$135–224 billion) in 2009, according to a new report from the European Environment Agency (EEA) which analyzed the costs of harm to health and the environment caused by air pollution.

Pollution 268
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Cooperative SO2 and NOx aerosol formation in haze pollution

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A study of major haze pollution episodes in China in 2013 by researchers from the State Key Laboratory of Atmospheric Boundary Layer Physics and Atmospheric Chemistry (LAPC), Chinese Academy of Sciences, shows that the formation of secondary sulfate aerosols from SO 2 increases in the presence of NO x. to reduce the overall PM 2.5

Pollution 231
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Study estimates California’s GHG reductions since 2003 could be wiped out by 2020 wildfires

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In an open-access report in the journal Environmental Pollution , researchers from UCLA and the University of Chicago estimate that California’s wildfire carbon dioxide equivalent (CO 2 e) emissions from 2020 (~127 mmt CO 2 e ) are approximately two times higher than California’s total greenhouse gas (GHG) emission reductions since 2003.

2003 447